On a serious note, this is actually a legitimate concern. Let's assume for the sake of argument that we are not the only intelligent species in the universe. This seems pretty likely when you think about it. And let's further assume ad argumentum that one or more species have unlocked the secret to interstellar space travel. This proposition is much more problematic since it would require that most everything we think we know about the laws of physics is wrong. But again for the sake of discussion...
Anyone who is capable of hopping from one solar system to another is going to be so far beyond us in technological development, that we might as well still be living in caves. Add to this the extremely unlikely proposition that we are the only intelligent and predatorially aggressive species around and well... you get the picture.
At the very least I think this deserves some discussion at higher levels and some consensus before we start posting interstellar coming out announcements. What these people are doing is rather akin to sending out an invitation to everyone on the block to a party at your place, except you're not the only one who lives there, AND you don't know any of the neighbors. These "scientists" seem to be assuming that we are living in a high quality neighborhood, maybe the Upper East Side of the Milkyway. When in fact we might be living in the galactic projects of Spanish Harlem.
In short, I'd like to know a little more about the neighbors before we invite them over for dinner. If for no other reason than to be sure that we aren't likely to end up as the main course.
if they have received our broadcast TV signals from the fifties yet....they are NEVER going to try to make contact with humans
Um, no. The only "Borg" anyone needs to be legitimately concerned about is called the U.S. Federal Government.
Oh, and welcome to FR.
Dr. Hans Zarkov: We are only interested in friendship. Why do you attack us?
The Emperor Ming: Why not? Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would’ve hidden from it in terror.
Considering that living things try to interact with strange and new creatures by seeing if they are good to eat or not, I’m thinking better safe than sorry!
Be careful what you wish for. Consider our own human history. What does history tell us when primitive and advanced civilizations clash. Think Cortez, the American slave trade, the jewel in the crown, etc.
I for one would not want aliens capable of traveling at light-speed to visit. Ak, Ak, Ak, Ak!!!
It’s a cookbook.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/1stendic/dark-angel-still_zpsnl0ihnif.jpg
SQUINT is the acronym I use for an idea called
S earch for
QU antum
INT ellegence
Have wondered why SETI limits their search to the outer universe
The Microcosm is just as vast
If intelligent life were found in the microcosm it would be much easier to correspond with
I could go on but expect to be clobbered here for just saying this much
See #20
So the proponents are being a little disingenuous: "Even if there are unfriendlies out there, they already know about us." Horse hockey! Even if they are out there, most of them, and perhaps even all of them, wouldn't have intercepted our broadcasts yet, and it's not too late to go silent; the leading edge of those early broadcasts is extremely attenuated by now and difficult to pick up. We just have to hope that unfriendlies within a hundred light years of us don't have the technology to detect them. In any event, it's obvious that very, very few intelligent species as a percentage of the whole in our galaxy know about us based on those early I Love Lucy type broadcasts. Let's keep it that way!
On the other hand, they could be a bit too friendly.
Me too.
We come from a galaxy 50,000,000,000 light years away. Prepare to be probed.
Every day we hear nothing increases the chances that we are alone. How sad that will be if true. That said I am against rushing out without scoping out the lie of the land. Further we should become an interstellar civilization with some time amoung the stars before we go around announcing our presence. Folks out there may know we are here, if so they are not talking.
But that never gets brought up.
/johnny